Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner

It’s a great day in post-racial America. The usual eye-rollingly dull Thanksgiving at the in-laws in going to be a little more interesting this year. This may wind up as a superior Thanksgiving post than previous efforts.

Instead of just deadbeat brother-in-law and in the midst of a divorce sister-in-law showing up, we have the added treat of my wife’s niece bringing her boyfriend.

He’s (looks around, stage whispers) BLACK!*

My wife’s family is not what anyone could charitably describe as “progressive”. We will see just how well the facade of civility is maintained over the next couple of hours. In all honesty, I expect everyone will be on their best behavior.

A little background: Mrs Sarcastro has known about this for quite a while and was the one who broke the news to the rest of her family. My mother-in-law’s reaction was the best. It sums up her Always Look On The Bright Side worldview. After being informed of not only the boyfriend, but of the real possibilty of having a cute little bi-racial grandchild one day, the MiL’s reaction was,

“Well, I guess he could be President one day.”

Stay tuned…

UPDATED: Boring. Not only was the meal bland so was the niece’s boyfriend. Poor kid barely said a word. For the most part this can be attributed to the niece’s father, the aforementioned deadbeat brother-in-law. He’s in his forties and met some 24 yr. old babe about two weeks ago. As is his usual mode at family gatherings, all conversation and attention must be focused on him. So, in front of his children, he went on and on about how hot this sweet young thing with the fake rack is and how he’s never been happier. Stay classy, deadbeat.

Did I mention how flavorless the food was?

*This is an in-joke. I was at the home of a parent of a prominent local politician who held forth on the state of things in Greater Antioch by proclaiming, “Antioch was real nice before all of the (looks around and whispers) “Blacks” moved here.”

He was standing in his own living room when he made the statement. I’m not sure if he was worried that some black folks may have inadvertently wandered into his home and could be eavesdropping so that’s why he was trying to be discreet. Better safe than sorry, I guess.